About Lt. John Hollister

Moved to Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1642 but apparently returned to Massachusetts for a few years before settling permanently in Connecticut.

In May 1643 he was registered as a Freeman of Weymouth, Massachusetts. In March 1644 he was the Weymouth representative to the Massachusetts General Court.

In September 1644 he was elected Deputy to the Connecticut General Court of Appeals and subsequently was re-elected 14 times.

In March 1650 he was appointed Lieutenant of the Wethersfield Train Band. In October 1654 he was appointed by the General Court as one of a three-man commission "to press men and necessities in each town" for an expedition against the Indians. In February 1656 he was appointed, with several others, to "give the best and safest advice to the Indians, if they agreed to meet and should crave their advice."

He became a large land-owner in the present Glastonbury section of the old town of Wethersfield (then called Naubuck Farms), where he held Lot No. 34 of 900 acres from the Hartford South line, and to which he added 10 acres in 1655. A dwelling house and other structures had already been built by 1651. Much of this farm remained in the family until the 1880s. The "Old Red House," built in 1675, still stands.

Lieutenant John Hollister, the immigrant ancestor, is said to have been born in England in 1612, and to have come from Bristol to America about 1642. He must have been of a good family and well educated, for he immediately became one of the influential men of Wethersfield and the Connecticut Colony. The first. mention of him is as juror of the particular court, March 2, 1642. In 1643 ne was made freeman, and in 1644 and April, 1645, he was deputy to the general court. Until 1656 he represented the town of Wethersfield many times. On October 3, 1654, he with two other men was appointed for Wethersfield to join with the deputy- governor to press men at Wethersfield for an expedition, which was very likely against the Indians, and in February, 1656, he was one of those appointed to give "the best and safe advice to the Indians, if they agreed to meet and should crave their advice." In March, 1658-59, he applied to the court regarding the charges made against him for which he had been excommunicated from the church. It seemed that Rev. John Russell had excommunicated him without giving any reasons, and the act made many prominent members of the church very angry. There was a long controversy over the matter, and Mr. Russell was finally removed from the church ; the opinion of the court seems to have been that both parties were unforgiving in behavior and equally at fault. On March 14, 1660, Lieutenant Hollister was made collector at Wethersfield. He held a large amount of land there, and much of it was- on the east side of the Connecticut river, now known as Glastonbury. Part of his land remained in the family until 1884, when Mr. Charles Hollister died ; the house in which he had lived, "the old Red House," is said to have been built in 1675. There is a family tradition that on one occasion when Mr. Hollister was working on his farm an Indian named Nayaug came to him and said that he was the strongest man in his tribe, that he had heard that Mr. Hollister was the strongest "pale-face," and that he wished to fight with him and see which was the stronger. Mr. Hollister consented and they began a long, hard fight until both were too tired to keep at it any longer. They then called a truce until they became rested, after which they began again to struggle for mastery, but again they proved equal in strength ; in this manner they fought until sunset, fighting and resting, but neither could overcome the other, and so they made peace and were friends the remainder of their lives. Lieutenant Hollister married Joanna, daughter of Hon. Richard and Joanna Treat, and she survived him. He died at Wethersfield in April, 1665, and she died in October, 1694.